How Zelensky’s Oval Office Meeting Turned into a Showdown With Trump
The question hovering over Washington was whether the confrontation was a spontaneous outburst or a planned verbal smack down.
It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
The question hovering over Washington was whether the confrontation was a spontaneous outburst or a planned verbal smack down.
Many Republicans have made a reversal on Russia and Ukraine, falling in line behind President Trump. No turnabout has been more striking than that of the Republican speaker.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance castigated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for not being grateful enough for U.S. aid. “You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump told Zelensky.
Never in the past few decades at least has an American president engaged in such an angry, scathing attack on a visiting foreign leader in the Oval Office.
The Biden administration saw the $67 billion in military assistance it provided to Kyiv as essential. Trump sees any further aid as leverage.
The president’s explosive Oval Office encounter reflected his determination to put aside alliances and commitments to principles in favor of raw great power negotiations.
The statements piled up on social media, offering words of encouragement to the Ukrainian leader and his people.
The remarkable scene of a vice president injecting himself into a tense diplomatic discussion suggested that JD Vance does not want to be relegated to the B-team of the Trump administration.
President Trump will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday after falsely asserting that Ukraine started the war with Russia and calling him a “dictator without elections.”
President Trump has little use for America’s traditional alliances, and tends to evaluate U.S. relationships according to whether countries are contributing economically to the United States.